JOB ANNOUNCEMENT (2012)
Staff Attorney
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is seeking a full-time staff attorney to further our technical support and capacity building work on behalf of immigrants and the practitioners who defend their rights. The ILRC is a national nonprofit legal support center located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1979, we specialize in immigration law, policy, and immigrants’ rights. The ILRC’s work concentrates on three main program areas: (1) building the capacity of attorneys, paralegals, organizers, service providers, immigrants, and others by providing legal technical assistance, trainings, and publications; (2) assisting immigrants with civic engagement projects to help expand immigrants’ rights and political power; and (3) conducting policy and advocacy work related to immigration law and immigrant rights.
The ILRC is a team-based organization that makes most of its decisions in a collaborative fashion that allows for significant staff input.
Job Responsibilities: The staff attorney will be responsible for contributing to several concurrent programs including:
· Responding to legal technical requests from public defenders, private practice attorneys, nonprofit agency staff, and pro bono attorneys who work with low-income immigrants on issues relating to family-based immigration, removal and deportation defense, VAWA, asylum, and other immigration law issues;
· Writing manuals, practitioner advisories, and outreach and educational materials for attorneys, paralegals, community organizers, members of the immigrant community, and others;
· Working with networks of other immigrant rights organizations and/or organizing with and presenting to groups on immigration law, policy and immigrant rights issues;
· Engaging in policy and advocacy work on immigration law issues;
· Writing grant proposals and reports to foundations and corporations, and representing the ILRC in meetings with funders and supporters; and
· Traveling for trainings, funder visits, and other events in California and throughout the United States.
· Helping immigrants lead and participate in civic engagement projects.
Qualifications: The successful applicant is required to have:
· A minimum of five – seven years of experience representing clients in the practice of general immigration law before the BIA and the federal courts, especially in regards to more complicated family-based and removal cases;
· Broad knowledge of family-based immigration law and removal cases including the grounds of inadmissibility and deportability; the intersection of criminal and immigration law and the rules governing BIA and judicial review;
· Excellent writing, editing, legal analysis, and oral presentation skills;
· Exceptional time management skills and the ability to meet deadlines;
· A strong work ethic, including the following qualities: organized, flexible, reliable, and dependable, with the ability to be an independent worker, and able to handle several projects simultaneously while thriving in a team-based collaborative decision-making environment;
· A willingness to travel throughout California and the United States; and
· A current Bar membership in good standing for any state in the United States or the District of Columbia.
It is a plus if the applicant has additional experience including:
· More than seven years of experience representing low-income clients in the practice of general immigration law, especially family-based and removal cases, including experience representing clients before the BIA and the federal courts;
· Writing and securing grants from foundations and corporations;
· Technical writing whether for immigration or other purposes;
· Training, teaching, or other public speaking experience;
· Working in, leading, or forming coalitions;
· Collaborating with immigrant communities;
· Coordinating civic engagement projects or working as a community organizer:
· Second language proficiency, preferably Spanish, Mandarin or Cantonese, within the range of conversational to fluent; and/or
· Business marketing and/or public relations experience utilizing both traditional and social media communication, such as preparation of media materials and website content, outreach to and interaction with media outlets, writing/sending press releases, prepping interview talking points, writing blog posts, articles or letters to the editor.
Salary/Benefits: Pay is commensurate with experience. The ILRC provides competitive salaries, excellent benefits including professional membership dues, health/dental/vision insurance, a flexible spending account for medical and dependent care, vacation, and sick leave. The ILRC sponsors a retirement plan option upon fulfillment of eligibility.
Applications: This position will remain open until it is filled. We will consider applications on an ongoing basis beginning immediately. To ensure consideration of your application, please submit a cover letter explaining your qualifications for the position and salary requirement, a resume, two writing samples – one sample that demonstrates immigration law knowledge and a second sample that shows business writing acumen — and the names of three references as soon as possible to:
Staff Attorney Hiring Committee
ILRC
1663 Mission Street, Suite 602
San Francisco, CA 94103
Fax: (415)255-9792 (no calls, please)
Job_attorney@ilrc.org